


Recuérdame (Te Llevo en Mi Corazon)

by weirdlyintoclassiclit



Category: Frankenstein & Related Fandoms, Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Not A Happy Ending, Songfic, clervenstein, light fluff, song: remember me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-27 06:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16697557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weirdlyintoclassiclit/pseuds/weirdlyintoclassiclit
Summary: "Remember me, though I have to say goodbye. Remember me, don't let it make you cry..."or the first time Victor sang to Clerval, his favourite time, and the last time.





	Recuérdame (Te Llevo en Mi Corazon)

**Author's Note:**

> I highly recommend that you listen to adrisaurus's cover of Remember Me on YouTube and consider supporting her! her cover helped inspire this fic and she's an amazing musician :)

 

When Victor was twelve, he'd broken his arm. The story behind the break was not even particularly exciting—he'd just fallen, and suddenly his arm was bent in a rather unnatural way.

He'd had to go to the hospital, of course; beyond that, he couldn't remember much. He chalked that up to adrenaline and the passing of nearly a decade. There was one thing, though, that had stood out in his mind throughout the years.

Clerval had not come to the hospital with him—Victor's family simply would not bring him along. His face had gone pallid, and his eyes could not stop darting to the awkward angle that Victor's arm had been pointing in. He was breaking down. Victor could see it. So he did the first thing that came to mind, even if he felt a little stupid doing it.

_"Remember me,"_ he sang softly, and took Clerval's hand with his good one, _"though I have to say goodbye. Remember me, don't let it make you cry."_

"Victor, what—"

_"For ever if I'm far away, I hold you in my heart,"_ Victor continued, stumbling over the words as he thought of them. It was working, though; music was soothing the panicked beast in front of him. _"I sing a secret song to you each night we are apart."_ Now Clerval's breathing was slowing, and his hand was squeezing Victor's with utmost care.

_"Remember me, though I have to travel far. Remember me each time you hear a sad guitar."_ Victor's smile was strained as the pain began to set in for real this time. _"Know that I'm with you the only way that I can be."_ He struggled to think of a way to end the impromptu melody, but his mind went blank.

_"Until you're in my arms again,"_ Clerval supplied waveringly, _"remember me."_  
  
He had come back with an itchy plaster cast on his arm and a song in his head.

  
He wrote the lyrics down the first chance he got, used them every time he and Clerval had to part, whether it was for research or travelling or anything else.

He sang it in the dead of the night to Clerval before he left for university, Clerval's head in his lap, fingers twining in the tawny curls. When he was through and his voice was hoarse he was quiet, looking out the window into the darkness shrouding them.

It was Clerval who broke the silence. _"Recuérdame,"_ he sang at first. Victor heard the jagged rasp at the beginning of the word and wanted to cover it with his lips. _"Si en tu mente vivo estoy, recuérdame. Mis sueños yo te doy. Te llevo en mi corazon. Y te accompañeré... unidos en nuestra canción contigo ahi estaré."_

"Is that Spanish?" Victor asked. Henry's voice was low and warm and sweet, rich like melted chocolate. Victor wanted to drown in that voice, like he could drown in Clerval's eyes, deep pools of honey brown.

Henry did not answer (but was that a smile at the corner of his lips, a little pained?), but instead kept up the song. _"Recuérdame. Si sola crees estar... Recuérdame, y mi cantar te irá a abrazar. Aun en la distancia nunca vayas a olvidar. Que yo contigo siempre voy... recuérdame."_

_"For soon I will be gone, remember me,"_ Victor whispered.

_"And let the love we have live on."_ Clerval's voice shook, but Victor had the decency to ignore it. His own voice was probably shaking as well.

_"Know that I'm with you the only way that I can be."_ Victor wished suddenly that they could stay like this forever, Clerval's head pillowed on his thigh, the moonlight illuminating the column of his throat, his hands clasped in Victor's. The room was chilly, but what did it matter? They were warm together.

_"So until you're in my arms again..."_

They were silent again, and then Clerval sat up and wrapped his arms around Victor's neck and their lips were pressed together and nothing, nothing existed except for Clerval's soft huffs of breath and the gentle brush of his hands.

"Remember me," he breathed.

Victor kissed him again, and again, and again, and he rememebered each kiss long afterwards.

  
The last time Victor sang to Clerval was when he was dying. He was lying on the ground, broken, blood trickling from his nose, his mouth. There was no saving him. He was slipping away, and even a doctor, someone who cheated death six times in as many hours, could see that. Although it made Victor's stomach turn to touch the bruised skin of the dying man, he gathered Clerval into his arms as tenderly as he could. Henry deserved that much, at least.

_"Remember me,"_ he managed through shudders coursing through his body, _"though I have to say goodbye. Remember me."_

Henry shut his eyes a moment as though comforted. His breath was a whispery crackling sound pushing through his crushed throat.

_"Don't let it make you cry."_ Victor's eyes pinched, the telltale sign of saltwater tears. _"For ever if I'm f-far away, I'll hold you in my heart. I'll s-sing a secret song to you each night we are apart."_ He trailed off, feeling as though he was at the edge of a cliff looking down into the depths of hell.

There was a tiny, minute but deliberate, tug at his sleeve. Clerval's eyes wer open again, and the agony in them made Victor's heart shatter. Henry could not speak, but Victor still understood the wordless plea that crawled through swollen lips.

Sing.

Victor did. It was the least that Henry deserved.

_"Remember me, though I have to travel far. Remember me each time you hear a sad guitar."_ He did not hold Henry closer for fear of hurting him more than he already had. He only cradled him like a baby, rocking back and forth on his heels, his hands trembling like leaves in a storm. _"Know that I'm with you the only way that I can be. Until you're in my arms again... remember me."_

Henry made the slightest movement that might have been a nod. It made the light shine grotesquely off the puffy marks on his neck. God, the marks, the bruises, the injuries that the monster had left... They were so ugly, brutal, undeserved. Undeserved.

_"For soon..."_ God, no. _"For soon..."_ His throat spasmed, sending pain up his oesophagus like bile. He couldn't say it. Saying it meant it was true.

Another tug. Slow. Careful.

_"For soon I will be gone,"_ Victor sobbed out. _"Remem-remember me, and let the love we have—"_ Had, his mind hissed to him, had, _the love you_ had, _because you killed him—"live on."_ The dam broke again. He began to cry in earnest, heaving dry, wracking sobs. He couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't feel. It was not until he stopped to inhale that he realised that Clerval was not breathing anymore. Victor pressed a hand over his heart, but he was shaking so badly he couldn't feel anything.

"No," he was repeating over and over, "no, no, dear god, please, no, not now, no." The look in Henry's eyes was terrifyingly glassy. Victor slapped him once, thinking only to get that awful blank look off his face, and soothed the mark with hurried kisses. He couldn't stand the though of another bruise marring Henry's skin.

_"Know that I'm with you the only way that I can be."_ At first he was not sure who was singing, and then he realised it was himself, finishing the song that Henry had asked for.

_"So until you're in my arms again....."_

He leaned down, pressed his lips to Clerval's forehead just once.

_"Remember me."_

**Author's Note:**

> boy howdy. this was my first ao3 fic so I'm kinda worried about it, but I hope y'all liked it! let me know what you think in the comments :)


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